Robes as pristine as snow!
Hair as black as ink!
Sitting quietly in a wheelchair, silhouetted against the setting sun, he gave off a highly unique aura. Did he stand head and shoulders above the rest? Did he hold all the answers? Was he a master strategist dictating the fate of the world?
None of the above!
His slightly frail figure simply sat there in silence. Without uttering a single word or making a single movement, he made it absolutely impossible for anyone to ignore him.
Lin Huang approached the pavilion. Xiao Yishan, who had been about to leave, glanced back at the pavilion and changed his mind, walking over as well.
"Greetings, Young Master!"
The young man in white robes smiled with pursed lips as he watched Lin Huang approach. His voice carried neither a trace of flattery nor the slightest hint of distance; it sounded incredibly placid.
"Qin Xuance?" Lin Huang asked. Looking at the young man before him, his mind felt as though it had exploded.
A face as pale as paper with soft, angular features. Bright eyes that contained countless profound mysteries. Thin lips lightly pursed, the corners habitually curving into a perfunctory smile. Long, slender fingers that constantly intertwined whenever he was deep in thought.
Lin Huang’s heart pounded. In his memory, the man named Qin Xuance gradually overlapped with the young man before his eyes until they merged perfectly into a single person.
Qin Xuance!
The future Divine Calculation. The Xi Xuance who would one day command the winds and rain with a flip of his hand, playing countless powerful figures like pawns.
He cursed inwardly, "Damn it... how can they be the same person!"
Looking at the habitual smile on Qin Xuance’s face made him feel a bit nauseous. He had never imagined that the Qin Xuance who would strike terror into the hearts of countless people across the continent in the future was actually from the Great Xia Dynasty. The guy who had fooled around with him for a whole year was actually from the Great Xia Dynasty.
The person who had driven Fatty Bai into a dead end after the destruction of the Divine General’s Mansion was actually this... son of a bitch.
To think this guy had bragged in front of him multiple times: "I once annihilated ten dynasties single-handedly..." It turned out he meant the Ten Great Dynasties of the East Spirit Realm. If he hadn’t come here today, Lin Huang probably would never have known that such a figure was hiding in the Great Xia Dynasty.
Xi Xuance.
Divine Calculation.
Well, I’ll be damned!!
Lin Huang’s eyes widened, his mind reeling as if blown apart by the wind. It took him a long time to recover. Looking at the playful smile curving on Qin Xuance’s lips, he asked, "How much of the *Ten Thousand Dynasties Cross and Vertical Discussion* have you written?
"And where is your Mountain and River Spring Fan?
"Also, how is your *Nine Beauties Pleasing the Monarch Painting* coming along?"
As he spoke, Lin Huang covered his mouth and let out a huge yawn, then patted Qin Xuance’s shoulder with great familiarity.
Sure enough, the corners of Qin Xuance’s mouth twitched. He looked at Lin Huang with a face full of amazement, highly puzzled. He thought, "How does he know I am writing the *Ten Thousand Dynasties Cross and Vertical Discussion*? Only three people know about this.
"Mountain and River Spring Fan... the fan I am just about to finish making. That name is actually extremely fitting!
"As for the *Nine Beauties Pleasing the Monarch Painting*..."
At this thought, a flush crept up Qin Xuance’s pale face. It felt burning hot, as if his deepest secret had been pried open. He wondered, "How does this guy know I’m painting a Spring Palace Painting? It’s impossible for anyone to know this.
"Furthermore, does this guy... seem to know that I’m a germaphobe?"
Qin Xuance’s face was a mixture of doubt, complexity, astonishment, and bewilderment.
Lin Huang smiled without saying a word, feeling quite elated. Seeing such expressions simultaneously appear on Qin Xuance’s face was incredibly rare, or rather, practically impossible.
"Young Master, have we met before?" Qin Xuance asked in confusion. He had a photographic memory and possessed the ability to never forget anything he had seen. He was certain he had never met Lin Huang before. Yet, Lin Huang’s earlier words were impossible to explain.
"Perhaps in a past life!" Lin Huang shook his head. Even though he had traveled back to the present through Jun Qingcheng’s Door of Time, those past experiences were no different from a past life.
The corners of Qin Xuance’s mouth twitched, and he nodded in a daze.
"Boss Lin, you’re finally here! They’re about to play me to death!" Fatty Bai stood up from the side, his face full of resentment. "Help me win this round! I bet one thousand taels of silver on it!"
At this moment, the three were engaged in a sandbox military simulation, and Fatty Bai looked like he was doomed to lose. Lin Huang shook his head. Everyone had their own specialties. When it came to sandbox simulations, he was a notch below even Fatty Bai, let alone a guy like Qin Xuance. Despite the constant smile hanging on his lips year-round, whenever Qin Xuance plotted something, he was insidious, ruthless, and heartless!
Lin Huang didn’t take over Fatty Bai’s position. Instead, Xiao Yishan kicked Fatty Bai aside and took the seat. He stared at the fiercely deadlocked situation before him with an indifferent expression.
"Senior... Xiao?" Lin Beichen looked at Xiao Yishan. Seeming to recognize the man, he stood up and called out, his voice rather agitated.
Xiao Yishan pressed his hand down, stopping Lin Beichen from speaking further. At this moment, Xiao Yishan appeared unusually serious. On the sandbox, Xiao Yishan moved his sand soldiers, executing a risky maneuver in a desperate situation.
Lin Beichen frowned. The rhythmic tapping of Qin Xuance’s fingers came to an abrupt halt.
Afterward, the pavilion gradually fell silent. Everyone focused their attention on the sandbox, watching the three-way struggle as various tactics were deployed one after another.
Half an hour later, Lin Beichen opened his mouth wide, his face filled with disbelief!
In the sandbox, the sand soldiers that originally belonged to him had been swallowed up with the unfeeling ruthlessness of the Tyrant Path by Xiao Yishan, with half of them seized by Qin Xuance.
Who was he, Lin Beichen?
The Great Xia War God!
A figure ranked in the top ten of East Spirit’s List of Famous Generals. He had swept across battlefields for over forty years with scarcely a defeat. When it came to sandbox simulations, absolutely no one could surpass him. Yet today, he was the first to be kicked out of the game by the combined efforts of Xiao Yishan and Qin Xuance.
The atmosphere in the pavilion grew increasingly tense. Xiao Yishan’s expression remained calm, while the smile on Qin Xuance’s face had vanished, replaced by an occasional frown.
"Let’s call this round to an end!" After a long time, looking at his own already victorious stance, Xiao Yishan swept a hand across the sandbox to scramble it. Then, he rearranged the sand soldiers into a new formation right in front of Qin Xuance and said, "You break this formation!"
Qin Xuance nodded and stared earnestly at the strategic setup in the sandbox.
The sun set in the west, and the sky gradually darkened. Only Lin Huang, Lin Beichen, Xiao Yishan, and Qin Xuance remained in the backyard.
The pavilion was brightly lit, illuminating the ten-foot square sandbox as well as Qin Xuance’s somewhat disheveled figure. This was already the seventh battle formation Xiao Yishan had laid out! In the eyes of an ordinary person, every formation would be a dead end. Even for Qin Xuance, who had read thirty thousand scrolls since childhood and taught himself military strategy and tactics for seven years, breaking these formations was extremely mentally exhausting.
Lin Beichen looked at the sandbox and shook his head helplessly. He could break the first six formations, but he was powerless against the seventh. Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but shoot a few deep glances at Qin Xuance.
Another figure akin to the Soldier Immortal Liu Shenzhi.
Perhaps even stronger than Liu Shenzhi!
"May I ask, Senior, in which book are these formations recorded?" Qin Xuance’s incredibly pale face was beaded with fine sweat. He had read countless books since childhood and had read broadly, yet he had never seen so many brilliant strategic formations.
"They are all recorded in my mind." Xiao Yishan wiped away the setup on the sandbox and gave a bland smile. "Not bad, kid. At your age, there aren’t many people who can consecutively break seven of Wang Yifeng’s formations."
Qin Xuance smiled and wiped the sweat from his forehead, his complexion growing even paler. This was the first time in three years he had expended so much mental energy.
"If you let me rest for a moment, I can continue breaking formations!" Qin Xuance looked a bit ragged, but mostly, he exuded confidence.
"What’s the point of breaking them!" Xiao Yishan smiled indifferently. "They’re nothing but petty tricks of armchair strategists. They’re meaningless. Only a scholarly fellow like you would find them interesting."
"Senior, saying that is a bit biased!" Qin Xuance smiled, stating his own view without arguing.
"Number Four, go have a fight with him. Then you’ll naturally know that what I’m saying is right. At the end of the day, this world still respects strength above all else," Xiao Yishan snorted.
Lin Huang raised an eyebrow, then shook his head. Qin Xuance had clearly not stepped into Martial Arts yet and couldn’t possibly be a match for Lin Huang. Bullying a sickly cripple in a wheelchair was not something he could bring himself to do.
"Senior is joking!" Qin Xuance smiled awkwardly. He didn’t expect Xiao Yishan to flip his attitude so abruptly. This was the behavior of an absolute hooligan.
"Let’s talk about something useful," Xiao Yishan said casually, leaning against a stone pillar of the pavilion. "Seeing as you have decent aptitude, I’ll introduce you to a master. That guy is fairly impressive."
Qin Xuance was slightly taken aback. "I’d rather not trouble you, Senior!" he said with a smile, gently refusing. In his heart, he didn’t care about this matter at all. He had read thirty thousand books and hadn’t stepped foot out of his room for ten years. He believed that within the East Spirit Realm, no one was qualified to be his master.
"Lofty and arrogant. You’re quite full of yourself," Xiao Yishan sneered.
"This is confidence, not the arrogance Senior speaks of," Qin Xuance shook his head.
Lin Huang looked at the conversation in the pavilion—no anger, no cursing, yet carrying an aggressive edge—and felt a headache coming on. The pride ingrained in Xiao Yishan’s bones had finally clashed with the arrogance hidden beneath Qin Xuance’s smile.
"I hope you can still smile this smugly in a little while!" Xiao Yishan raised his eyebrows and coldly snorted. The bit of appreciation he initially had for Qin Xuance was now entirely replaced by annoyance. "A frog at the bottom of a well, how could you know the vastness of heaven and earth, the boundless heights of the firmament?"
With that said, Xiao Yishan took out a paper crane from his Storage Ring and shouted curses at it: "Li Baiyi, I just met a junior who said you’re a piece of trash, not even fit to carry his shoes!"
As Xiao Yishan’s voice fell, a string of ancient characters flashed on the paper crane. It flapped its wings in Xiao Yishan’s palm and then vanished.
Qin Xuance looked embarrassed. He believed he had refused very politely; how did it completely change flavor once it came out of Xiao Yishan’s mouth?
"Ahem, why don’t you two have something to eat!" Lin Beichen laughed from the side.
"Mansion Master, it is getting late. I shall come back to disturb you another day," Qin Xuance said, looking at Xiao Yishan while feeling on pins and needles.
"Sit the hell down," Xiao Yishan coldly snorted. "If it weren’t for the fact that I didn’t want to see your aptitude go to waste, did you think I would even look at you? I’m cherishing talent here! Do you understand what it means to cherish talent?"
Qin Xuance nodded, sweat forming on his forehead. The books said that when a Scholar met a soldier, no amount of reasoning could explain things clearly. It seemed this was indeed true.
Not long after, Xiao Yishan waved his arm. His five fingers snatched the previous paper crane out of the void. Hanging from the paper crane’s neck was a clear, azure blue Profound Phecda Jade Scroll.
This was accompanied by an elegant voice, tinged with Dominance, echoing through the pavilion:
"Inside the jade scroll is a volume of the Celestial Secret Dao Map. I once solved it using eight thousand one hundred methods. If you can solve it using eighty-one methods within a month... I! Li Baiyi! Will carry your shoes for you!"